


Golden — Eleven Hopper

by regulusblacks



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), Stranger Things 2, Stranger Things 3, Stranger Things Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28818450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regulusblacks/pseuds/regulusblacks
Summary: Normality was something Evangeline was very used to. It was comfortable, familiar and happy. She was happy.  The thought of change scared Evangeline. She didn't want things to change, not now, not ever. Yet, deep down, Evangeline knew there was something missing, something more.White rooms and experiments was all Eleven knew. With a lack of knowledge of the world, she had no idea there was so much more to life than just this. Nosebleeds and tattoos were normal, in fact, she didn't know there was a world outside the white bare walls.That is, on certain night in 1983, both of their path's cross and everything that had ever seemed wrong, falls into place.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper





	Golden — Eleven Hopper

Monday mornings were pretty shit in Eva's opinion. But from Tori, Eva knew nobody who didn't think Monday mornings were complete shit. It also didn't help that Mike had been a complete ass and taken the bathroom for 10 minutes straight, right when she needed it. So, instead of being reasonable, she kicked his door in and went downstairs to take the last few eggos which he said he claimed last night.

Mike later came down and resisted the urge to smack Eva upside the head, begrudgingly having the scrambled egg that had been made, without a usual eggo on the side. He then poured some maple syrup over his plate and Nancy scrunched her nose, "that's disgusting."

"you're disgusting," Mike fired back quickly, putting more syrup over his plate just to spite Nancy. Nancy was always a bit of a bitch. It was one of the only things that Mike and Eva could agree on. She was popular, smart, and did well in school and her studies. While Eva herself did do well in school and was definitely one of the more popular girls, Eva didn't really notice how genuinely alike her and Nancy really were. They were quite the opposite of Mike, who was a social outcast nerd and bullied by other boys in his classes. But Eva also spited Mike, agreeing on the fact he was most definitely a nerd. Secretly though, she did enjoy star wars and sometimes listening in on his D&D games. 

"Eva, sweetie, please could you get that?" Her mum asked, nodding to the telephone with baby Holly on her hip. 

Eva nodded and pushed away from the table, making a few of the glasses shake slightly. Mike briefly scolded her and Eva sneered, telling him to stop being so sensitive, "H-Hello?"

On the end of the line, there came a familiar voice which was clearly a little unexpected to hear Eva, "Oh! Hi, Eva it's Joyce, is your mother there?" 

"Y-Yeah she is, buh-buh-but shes a little b-busy with H-Holly right now," Eva replied, glancing back at her mother who asked who it was, to which Eva said Will's mum.

In that moment, Mike decided to put syrup over Nancy's plate and Eva had to hold back a laugh while they started to argue across the table with their dad trying to tell them to stop, "g-guys! shh, s-sorry—"

"Is that Will I heard back there?" Joyce interrupted, unbothered by the commotion that Eva apologised for. 

"N-No? Just Nancy and M-Mike being i-idiots," Eva replied, a little confused and ignoring Nancy's shrill 'hey!' that could be heard in the background.

"Will didn't spend the night?" Joyce reiterated, her voice growing concerned and Eva's eyebrows furrowed.

"No I s-saw him wh-when I was c-coming back home l-l-last n-night," Eva shook her head, despite Joyce not seeing that, "i-is he n-not h-home?"

"Um, you know what, i think he just left early for— ... for school," Joyce said a little uncertainly, as if she was telling herself that as well as Eva, "thank you so much, bye!"

"Bye!" Eva replied, putting the phone down and walking back to the table and sitting down, finishing her breakfast while trying to ignore Mike and Nancy's bickering. 

"Was everything okay on the phone?" her mum asked, looking at Eva and wincing a little at the louder voices, to which Eva nodded, smiling and trying to push down the slight feeling of dread that had grown in the stomach. 

"Where could she be?" Via sighed, looking at her watch and then groaning, leaning on her side, "it's 8:20! We need to get going, Eva."

"Maybe we should wait 5 more minutes ... " Eva trailed off, bouncing on her heels and looking down the path to where Tori usually walked from to meet them, "what if she's just late?"

"Tori's never late, I'm telling you, she's probably on a sick day or something," Via shook her head, looking at Eva, who was biting the inside of her cheek anxiously. Via sighed sympathetically and placed a hand on Eva's shoulder, "we'll go there after school together, but we're going to be late for class at this rate, and I don't think Tori would want that."

Eva reluctantly nodded and the two girls started walking to school together, seeing a few other students from their classes walking on the opposite sidewalk too, but none of them looked like Tori. Perhaps this just happened to be the first time Tori had a sick day and this is all just a coincidence.

"We're doing more work on footloose again today, right?" Via turned to Eva, snapping her out of her thoughts and back into reality. Eva then smiled, the mention brightening her mood.

"yeah! i think we're doing some choreography!" Eva beamed. Eva, Tori and Via had all met when they were young and they all shared a similar interest in musical theatre. Tori and Eva had known each other the longest since ballet when they were small, both officially joining theatre class in middle school. At some point, Eva and Tori moved onto different types of dance where they met Via, a girl in the class who got a long with them well. Via had been homeschooled and once middle school rolled around, she enrolled and ever since then, they had all been attached at the hip.

"Oh that's always the best!" Via smiled, excited, "I'm much preferring Footloose to Midsummers, there's more dancing." 

"Me too! But I'll always love the first midsummers show," Eva giggled, recounting the memory of their first show where they got lost right up until the last moment they had to be stage and a handful of other silly moments that happened backstage.

"God don't remind me," Via laughed. They not long after got to school, walking past Eva's brother and his friends being made fun of by Troy. Eva would love to step in and defend her brother but she only recently managed to escape Troy's nastiness and she didn't want to turn his attention on her. 

Eva had always had a stutter. It was much worse when she was young and it was only recently in the past couple getting better with the speech therapy and musical theatre. It gets much worse when she's anxious though, to which Troy would use, giving her the nickname, 'glitch'. It had only stopped when she refused to hang out with Mike as much, a long with occasionally making fun of him too in the presence of her bullies. She didn't notice how much she hurt Mike. 

"Looks like Will isn't in school either," Via observed, looking back at Mike and his for a moment before looking ahead into school where they were headed. Eva frowned, looking down she thought about what had happened this morning with the telephone call from Joyce, and crashing into Will on Mirkwood the night before. Something was up.

"I th-think he's already in c-class, he's p-probably panicking about a p-p-p-p-pop quiz," Eva shook her head, struggling with her words which made Via frown a little for her. 

"Alright," Via nodded, turning the corner to their homeroom, accepting what she said, while Eva started to get concerned; she had to tell someone that something wasn't right. 

"Alright everyone, that was very well done," Miss Kidd said loudly, clapping her hands to get the class to quieten down after their loud and excited lesson, "now for next weeks work, I propose we do further work on this same choreography as it's a little more difficult than previous ones, and I don't want you to—"

Miss Kidd had been interrupted by a knock from a teacher, the guidance counsellor? He had a slight smile on his face and he seemed to have been stood their a while, not that anyone had noticed yet. "sorry to interrupt, Miss, but I need to borrow, uhm—" he glanced down at a post-it note, "Evangeline Wheeler please, if she could come with me as soon as possible."

Eva glanced at Via a little nervously and confused, not exactly sure what was going on, but she stepped down off of their small stage and picked up her backpack. Quietly, she walked around the front desk and to the door, then out of the classroom following the counsellor. "Sorry she's a little late, Chief, she was—" 

"Yeah, I don't have much time for explanations, sit down, kid." The chief directed, hardly looking at Eva as she sat down in a chair beside the other students there. Quickly she realised it was Mike, with his friends, Dustin and Lucas, yet ... no Will. She then realised that the fact Chief Hopper was here to talk meant it was probably bad, "right let's just get on with it, I'm sick of your boys' rambling."

"There's hardly much more that Eva could tell you!" Mike jumped in, surprisingly as he had been quiet for most of the interrogation prior. 

"Shut it!" Hopper snapped, looking at Mike which made him slump back in his seat deflated. Hopper then looked at Eva, who's eyes were wide in concern and panic, "Will Byers has been reported missing this morning, his mother said you saw him last night?"

She knew it. Eva knew there was something not right and this was just it. Will was one of the most responsible people she knew, this definitely wasn't going to his fault, "yeah, I w-was on my way h-h-home and I a-accidentally c-crashed into h-h-him."

"You crashed into him?" Hopper repeated, a little skeptically, not exactly sure what she meant by that, "on 'Mirkwood?'"

"Yeah, o-on my bike, m-m-my bike light w-w-went out a-and I c-couldn't see where i w-was g-going," she said, recounting the memory and thinking about the unsettling feelings she had biking on Mirkwood.

"Did you see anything weird around there?" Hopper asked her, noticing how she was now fidgeting and her palms were sweating like she was afraid. Eva shook her head, looking down, not wanting to stutter badly. 

How can she simply say she was scared that she was being followed? Every 12 year old was scared of the dark, it was probably just that — Will had just lost balance in the woods or something and got lost, "no."

He took a deep breath, not particularly believing the girl but he could tell she didn't want to talk. He sat back in his seat and then looked at the three boys who were waiting for more information or something, "where exactly is Mirkwood again?"

"Where Cornwalis and Kurly meet," Mike said quickly.

"Yeah I think I know where that is," Hopper looked at the other officer who was taking notes down the entire time they had been there.

"We can show you if you want!" Mike eagerly jumped in, desperately wanting to help find Will. 

"I said that I know it," Hopper raised his voice, growing agitated from the kids sat down in-front of him.

"We can help look!" Mike insisted.

"No. After school you are all to go home! Immediately. That means no biking around looking around for your friend, no investigatin', no nonsence. This isn't some Lord of the rings book." Hopper exasperated, looking at all of them firmly. 

"The hobbit," Dustin muttered, sparking up another bickering match.

"Shut up, Dustin!" Lucas shot, punching Dustin in the shoulder which only made him retaliate. Mike tensed as his two friends hit each other across him.

"Do i make myself clear?" Hopper asked in a low tone, more of a statement over a question which made Dustin and Lucas slow down and quieten. 

Hopper then stands up and takes a step forward. With a barely louder tone, he repeats, "do i make myself.. clear?" 

A chorus' of 'yes sir' and 'yeah's came from each of them. They were all then dismissed, and Eva was quick to stand up, seeing Via at the door waiting for her. On their way out, Eva explained everything to her but the subject passed fairly quickly as they began to talk about Tori. They were going to stop off at hers later that night, to make sure she was alright, secretly knowing they could have a little look for Will along the way.


End file.
